Worship at work

More and more people are showing their faith at work, and some are basing their businesses on it.

Nate Legue

At least once while she’s at work, Dr. Saima Naeem pulls a green rug out of a closet, washes her face and hands, and kneels to pray toward the northeast corner of her office, the direction of Mecca.

Financial adviser Tom Muldowney keeps a picture of Jesus on the wall opposite his desk to remind him that God watches over his work.

Another investment company leaves Bibles in its waiting room and holds Bible studies for employees.

Car dealer Jim Hawks incorporated a cross into his logo, a move he said sometimes spurs conversations with customers about spiritual matters.

Many employers are accommodating the faith of their workers, allowing employees to hold voluntary Bible studies on company property, even providing chaplains at some corporations. Some management gurus even encourage religion at work, both as an antidote to the corruption problems of the Enron era and to foster employee satisfaction and productivity.

Still, the “faith-at-work” movement is not without its conflicts. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission reports 2,541 charges of religious discrimination during fiscal 2006 — a nearly 49 percent increase since 1997.

But many of the faithful who don’t mind speaking in spiritual terms at work say they can’t compartmentalize their religion to weekly worship services.

For Naeem, a Pakistani hospitalist at SwedishAmerican Hospital, faith is a overarching presence in her life. To try to separate it from her job or any other part of her life would be unthinkable. Like most devout Muslims, she prays five times a day. She even uses a program on her PalmPilot that determines the exact times because the salat schedule is based on sunrises and sunsets that vary throughout the year.

“Our religion is not just in the mosque,” Naeem said. “The way I walk, way I talk, way I eat, way I bathe, it tells me everything. It’s a way of life.”

She also wears her faith. To follow Islamic dictates about modesty and worship, she wears a hijab, or head scarf, whenever she is outside her home. It’s often the first thing her patients notice about her when she makes rounds, and many ask her about it. Only once in her nine years as a doctor in the United States has anyone refused to be treated by her.

Most patients are accepting about medical care from a doctor from a different religion. Jackie Jones, whose mother suffered a stroke and was under Naeem’s care, is a Jehovah’s Witness.

“You give it no thought as long as she respects my feelings and my Bible-based conscience,” Jones said. “She’s been here every day for my mom. She’s been very, very concerned.”

Sharing one’s faith is easier in some careers than others. When dispensing investing advice, religious guidelines on integrity and honesty pay dividends. At Klaas Financial in Loves Park, nearly all the employees attend Protestant churches of some stripe and participate in a semiweekly Bible study.

“Christian principles have always been manifest” in the business, said Scott Johnson, certified financial planner.

“It’s a relationship business,” Johnson said. “Trust is of the essence when we’re taking care of people’s money. We listen for the opportunity to share, but we never are in anyone’s face about it.”

One business that keeps faith literally front and center is Crossroads Auto Sales. The sign towering over the used-car lot has a cross with lane stripes on it, which has dual meanings because the lot is next to Roscoe’s main intersection, U.S. 251 and Elevator Road.

Hawks opened Crossroads earlier this year and said the new dealership was a “miracle.” After an abrupt departure from another car lot, Hawks was without a job or the capital to start his own business. But Dan Arnold, president of Road Ranger LLC and a fellow evangelical Christian, offered to build the lot and give him a 10-year lease.

“I wouldn’t have this business if it wasn’t for God blessing me,” Hawks said. “That’s why it doesn’t say ‘Jim Hawks Auto World’ on that sign.”

Arnold himself is not bashful about sharing his faith, but in 2005 his company was sued by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The commission said Road Ranger fired a Jewish employee for not participating in religious activities; the case was settled out of court last year.

“There’s a line to how affirmative you can be when you’re wearing your religion on your sleeve, but it’s a very, very gray line, and it’s very fact- and situation-specific,” said Steve Balogh, an attorney who specializes in employee relations and civil rights law.

Complaints about religious discrimination to the EEOC were on a steady rise after 2001, peaking in 2003. Much of that was because of the Sept. 11 attacks, which sparked a wave of anti-Muslim sentiment, Balogh said.

Inside the gray line between what’s legal and what’s not, there’s a variety of responses in the workplace. Some people make overt expressions of their faith, others just try to encourage their customers and co-workers in the dog-eat-dog world of commerce.

Muldowney is a partner at Savant Capital Management and an unabashed defender of his Roman Catholic faith. But he’s demure about it unless a client asks or wants to talk.

“When people are struggling, they struggle with many different things. They struggle with money and they struggle with meaning-of-life issues. Sometimes, a faith orientation can be a very calming influence.”

Gannett News Service contributed to this story.

Contact Nate Legue at nlegue@rrstar.com.

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